Haaland stars in Norway’s 5-0 thrashing of Moldova as Wales start 2026 World Cup Qualifying on successful notice

Wales beat Kazakhstan 3-1 on Saturday to start out their bid to qualify for the 2026 World Cup with a win, whereas Erling Haaland was among the many scorers as Norway swept to a 5-0 victory in Moldova.

Wales are chasing a second straight look on the World Cup finals after they made it to the 2022 event in Qatar, and Craig Bellamy’s workforce noticed off a dogged Kazakhstan aspect in Cardiff.

Wales went in entrance within the Group J encounter inside 9 minutes with a deflected effort from the Leeds United winger Daniel James.

Kazakhstan, who’re one hundred and tenth within the FIFA rankings, drew stage from the penalty spot simply after the half-hour mark, Askhat Tagybergen changing following a handball by Connor Roberts.

Wales picked up the place they left off of their spectacular UEFA Nations League performances on the finish of final 12 months as they bought the job finished within the second half.

Captain Ben Davies restored the lead with a header shortly after the restart. Rabbi Matondo got here off the bench to wrap up the win on the demise.

“We spoke all week about getting off to begin and that’s what we did tonight,” James instructed the BBC.

“It’s so necessary to get the win tonight and push on for Tuesday,” he added, with Wales subsequent travelling to North Macedonia.

Aleksandar Trajkovski and Visar Musliu netted within the first half earlier than Girona ahead Bojan Miovski sealed the win late on as North Macedonia eased to a 3-0 victory away to minnows Liechtenstein.

Group favourites Belgium is not going to start their marketing campaign till June.

Schick’s Czech double

Norway are determined to take advantage of an thrilling era of gamers as they search to qualify for a primary main event since Euro 2000, and a primary World Cup since 1998.

They made quick work of Moldova in Chisinau, with full-back Julian Ryerson of Borussia Dortmund giving the guests an early lead from shut vary within the Group I encounter.

Manchester Metropolis celebrity Haaland missed likelihood earlier than including the second objective halfway by the primary half, ending from an Andreas Schjelderup cutback.

Haaland has scored 39 targets in 40 appearances for his nation, together with eight in seven for the reason that begin of this season.

Norway, captained by Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, scored their third by Thelo Aasgaard of Luton City. Atletico Madrid ahead Alexander Sorloth headed within the fourth simply earlier than the interval.

Aron Donnum, on instead, wrapped up a complete victory halfway by the second half.

Greater assessments lie forward for Norway with solely the group winners qualifying immediately for subsequent 12 months’s finals and the part to be accomplished by the loser of the Nations League quarter-final tie between Italy and Germany.

Within the different sport within the group on Saturday, Israel beat Estonia 2-1 in Hungary.

Maksim Paskotsi put Estonia forward just for an personal objective by goalkeeper Karl Jakob Hein to deliver Israel stage earlier than Eli Dasa bought their winner.

Additionally on Saturday, the Czech Republic edged out the Faroe Islands 2-1 at house in Group L with Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick getting each of their targets.

That included a late winner after Gunnar Vatnhamar had briefly introduced the guests again on stage phrases.

Montenegro got here from behind to beat Gibraltar 3-1 in the identical part, which will likely be accomplished by whoever loses the Nations League tie between France and Croatia.